Taking the Ghia for a spin

This is a short video of me out enjoying the JMC AutoworX Karmann Ghia. The JMC AutoworX Karmann Ghia is a 1960 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible that I rebuilt as a promotional tool for my business. I take the car around to car shows and the like as an attention grabber so that potential customers will walk up, look the car over, and if I’m lucky, take a business card. The marketing aspect is very low key, but this little car gets a lot of comment and smiles, and that makes it all worth while even if the people don’t take a card.

But this isn’t your typical Karmann Ghia. Built in 1960 the car had less than 40 horsepower when new. It does a little better than that now. The 78.8mm stroke Scat crank and 92mm pistons allows the engine to displace a healthy 2.1 liters. Scat pro drag wedge port heads with 44mm intake and 37.5 mm exhaust valves breathing through twin 44mm Weber carbs and all forged internals means this car makes big power … day in and day out. A fully built transmission with steel shift forks and welded 3^rd and 4^th gears allows the power to get to the ground without constantly having to stop and pick up pieces of the transmission.

It is a shame, I know, to have to drive this as the company car.

Understated yet still gorgeous

Now that the car is complete, Hugh was kind enough to send me a few photos … glamour shots if you will.

This beauty has Vintage Air, power steering, power brakes, a 5 speed Tremec transmission and an Edelbrock built 383 stroker motor. This is definitely a car built to cruise in.

I have to admit, I am kind of digging the plain jane look with the dog dish hub caps. This car reminds me of the stereotypical movie librarian. You know the one I am talking about. At the beginning of the movie she is this mousy, shy, plain girl and by the end of the movie, as the love interest gets to know her and looks beyond his initial impression, she turns out to be a jaw dropper.

This car needs a plate that reads LIBRARIAN.

Reassembly

After all the sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, and finally polishing, it is finally time to put the 1962 Austin-Healey back together. These shots were taken over the course of about a week.

One nice thing about these old cars … they are anvil simple so there’s not much to go wrong when putting them together.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

This clearly (no pun intended) shows the difference between a standard finish and a High Performance Finish.

While our standard finish will leave a new car gloss, only the High Performance Finish will give you these razor sharp reflections.